Mark Brown sees his service in the United States Navy Reserves as his duty. That didn't diminish the fact that the Livonia resident was quite honored when selected by the Navy Reserves as Sailor of the Year earlier this spring.

"I say timing is everything. Timing worked out perfectly," said Brown, who was recently named a chief petty officer. "I didn't have the aspirations to become sailor of the year. It was just keeping doing what I'm doing, take care of my people."

Brown was selected as the Sailor of the Year over thousands of other sailors nationwide. It was a selection process that took several months and involved Brown heading to Washington, D.C., as a finalist and again to receive the award.

He currently is assigned to the Naval Reserve Mobile Tactical Operations Center Detachment 273 and works out of Selfridge Air Force Base in Harrison Township, as well as some support down in Jacksonville, Florida.

Brown competed against members in his unit before moving up to go against others in the region. After being selected up the chain, he was selected of the Sailor of the Year for his region, one of six.

The call

In February, Brown said he got a call from the Pentagon, inviting him to be a finalist for Sailor of the Year and to come to Washington, D.C. The time spent in Washington involved speaking to superiors, such as the chief of the Naval Reserves, and seeing the nation's capital.

Brown said he saw the event more about the camaraderie between the sailors, rather than a competition.

"So my wife and I got to go out in April," he said. "They call it a competition, but it really was a week of recognition. Because each of us were our respective No. 1's."

After that week, it was announced that Brown had been selected as Sailor of the Year during a ceremony. Brown said emotions ran through him.

"They read my name, and it's this incredible feeling. I just drop my head," he said. "It was just a super-emotional feeling that I never thought that would be on my radar, ever."

They returned to Washington in May for the pinning ceremony, which took place at the Navy Memorial.

Even several weeks after the second trip, he said the feeling hasn't sunk in yet.

"It's an incredible feeling," he said. "It's super, super surreal."

Reservists have been eligible for such an award since the early 1980s, Brown said. He served as an active duty sailor after enlisting in Feb. 2001. He spent six years in the Navy before leaving in 2007, and then immediately transitioned into the Reserves. He began college in 2009 at Eastern Michigan University, where he earned a bachelor's degree and has gone into the nursing field back in Livonia, the place he calls home with his wife, a native of the city.

He said he plans on serving in the Navy Reserves so long as he's able to. It's been a part of his life and identity for so long and he's not able to walk away from that easily.

"It's just made me who I am," he said. "It's something I don't think I'll ever really give up willingly.